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Santa Barbara 'candy man' doctor to be re-sentenced

A federal appeals court has ruled that a former Santa Barbara physician convicted of illegally prescribing patients dangerous amounts of narcotics that authorities believe contributed to 20 deaths should be re-sentenced.

A federal appeals court has ruled that a former Santa Barbara physician convicted of illegally prescribing patients dangerous amounts of narcotics that authorities believe contributed to 20 deaths should be re-sentenced.

Julio Gabriel Diaz – who colleagues nicknamed the “Candy Man” for the unusually large amounts of sedatives and painkillers he prescribed to patients across the state – was initially sentenced to more than the statutory maximum time he was eligible for behind bars, according to a written U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision released Wednesday.

A Santa Ana jury in 2015 found Diaz guilty of 79 felony counts of distributing controlled prescription drugs, and U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney sentenced the doctor to 27 years, three months in prison.

Diaz had spent decades running a family medicine practice focused on low-income, largely Spanish-speaking elderly patients. He acknowledged during courtroom testimonythat his judgment hadn’t always been the best. But he contended he was tricked by patients who lied to get the powerful narcotics.

Some pharmacies refused to fill the doctor’s prescriptions, emergency-room doctors began tallying the growing number of his patients who overdosed, and some family members begged Diaz to stop giving their loved ones access to medications such as oxycodone, methadone, hydrocodone and fentanyl.

The federal appeals court found it “troubling” that federal prosecutors introduced evidence during the trial about fatal overdoses suffered by at least 20 of Diaz’s patients without charging him in connection to those deaths.

But the appeals court decided against overturning the jury verdict.

“There was a tremendous amount of evidence in the record to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Diaz did not prescribe the drugs in a good-faith attempt to conform to professional standards for appropriate pain management,” the court said.

The 9th Circuit decision sends the case back to the U.S. District courthouse in Santa Ana for re-sentencing.